Is it worth the cost to make a 2/1 into a 2/2?

[Tom Conant]

My wife and I just moved into a house on a 1/2 acre lot in Fresno with large detached 3 car garage with a kitchen and bathroom on the back of the property.  My goal is to convert it to an 1100 sqft second house (which it looks like anyway until you realize 70% of the square footage is garage space).

It will have it's own private driveway, car port, and a fenced yard to separate it from our part of the property.

Our goal is to create a mid term rental for traveling nurses.  At minimum, the kitchen and bathroom will be updated, and the garage will be converted into 2 bedrooms and a living room.

I've considered adding an addition bathroom into this space as well.  My question is if this will be worth the money as I will need to dig into the concrete slab foundation and tie into the existing sewage line.  It's possible that I may even need to increase the size of the entire sewage line depending on the size it is currently.

A second bathroom would make the space ideal for a pair of traveling nurses, but it is also a significant cost added to the project.

For those specializing in this space, I would love to hear feedback on how valuable the second bathroom will be.

[Alecia Loveless]

@Tom Conant James has given you a rough estimate of how much more you might get adding the bathroom.

Now I’d get some estimates for the scope of work for the foundation and then calculate how long it will take you to recover your investment if you do the work.

Then you can figure out if it’s worth it to you to do the project or if it would be wiser to spend your money on something else with a quicker rate of return.

You also might want to talk with a couple of respected realtors to see what type of extra value you could get when you go to sell your house for each option.